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Sunday, December 18, 2011

AAR7: Uwanda Strikes Back

In Uwanda, the elections were held, and a new face became president. President Danganyo was a charismatic man, who stressed that leadership and decisiveness was what had been lacking in dealing with Mugabia. Once he had assumed office and been briefed on the situation, he decided that it was time to punish the ULF for opening the door to war.

Uwanda would strike back at the ULF by destroying one of its basecamps. A camp near the town at Objective B11 was selected, not too far inside of Mugabia in Pettu territory. The Uwanda airforce had been overflying Mugabian airspace, almost without interruption, and had good information about the base.

View of the camp, the Uwandan commandos enter from the left.

The attack plan was simple, Uwnadan commandos would be inserted via helicopter near the the camp, make their way there in the early morning hours under the cover of darkness, and attack at dawn. As it turned out, the president's plan was more aggressive than the helicopter pilots, who had "difficulties" until just before daylight, only crossing the border at about the time the attack should have started.

View of the camp from the southeast.

Another view from the southwest.

Still, the Uwandan troops were inserted without incident, and moved toward the base. Everything proceeded well, until they bumped into a foot patrol outside the camp. The advancing Uwandans had seen the ULF patrol moving generally away from them, but the patrol suddenly changed direction, and were very surprised after a moment. Both sides shot simultaneously, but the Uwnadans had the innitiative and hit both of the ULF fighters. There had been sounds of gunfire through he morning, as ULF men were on the range getting in some target practice, so the alarm wasn't immediately sounded.

The ULF foot patrol.

Unfortunately, only moments later, and with the Uwandans still out of position for the attack, one of the ULF guards managed to spot movement in the underbrush. He watched for a moment before firing his RPG; the Uwandans were still not in position.

A watchful ULF guard.

Though the Uwndans had the first casualty, they quickly made progress against the surprised and confused ULF troops, who had no real expectation to be attacked at one of their bases. Their primary reason for guarding their base was to keep locals from stealing food and medicine.

Though there was a lot of shooting, the Uwandans didn't start taking casualties until crossing the stream at the west end of the camp. As they made it to the emplacements around the perimeter of the camp, they were surprised by the volume of fire, and by the Mugabian army advisers that began directing the defense.

Mugabian commandos advancing into the west end of the camp.

The fight was chaotic, as half of the Uwandans never really got into the camp, and ULF fighters were running every which way, trying to obey the Mugabians and figure out where the Uwandans were.

The Uwandans caused a great deal of damage, peppering the camp with LAW rockets, destroying a jeep and buildings, and killing most of the ULF and Mugabian leaders and officers in the process. Unfortunately, they were taking more casualties than the plan allowed for, and they could not advance on the retreating ULF fighters.

The camp with most of the leadership dead; ULF fighters begin to retreat.

The camp housed 53 ULF fighters and 9 Mugabian advisers at the time of the attack, 22 fighters and 6 advisers were lost, as were 11 Uwandan commandos; four would be seen in a seen in a hospital, having been taken prisoner.

In the end, the battle was not seen as a success by the Uwnadans. Their pilots were not equipped for night operations, and on the ground their luck had not been great. Still, the raid was a useful propaganda tool, and Mugabia now had to face that they did not, and could not control their airspace. A rush was made to procure air detection and defence systems, but little was available, and it would take months of training before these could be brought on line.